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Amir Oghlow Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

A noun clause modifier

That the museum cancelled the lecture, which is quite surprising, disappoints me.

A noun clause consists of subordinating conjunction followed by a clause
Does " which is quite surprising" consist of subordinating conjunction and the subordinating conjunction followed by a clause which is "disappoints me"?
  

Top answer

Let's build the sentence, a bit at a time, to make sense of it. We start with the "core" of the sentence. 1 Some fact disappoints me.

— AlpheccaStars

  • Let's build the sentence, a bit at a time, to make sense of it.
  • We start with the "core" of the sentence.
  • 1 Some fact disappoints me.
  • " Now we add a relative clause to explain what the "fact" is: 2.
  • The fact that the museum cancelled the lecture disappoints me.
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4 Answers
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Let's build the sentence, a bit at a time, to make sense of it.

We start with the "core" of the sentence.
1 Some fact disappoints me.
You see that the main verb is "disappoints" and the complement is "me."

Now we add a relative clause to explain what the "fact" is:
2. The fact that the museum cancelled the lecture disappoints me.

Now we "fuse" the rel
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Why is "which is quite surprising" non-defining?
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Amir OghlowWhy is "which is quite surprising" non-defining?
Because you can remove it without loss of any key information.

Compare:
The fire destroyed the house that was built in 1881. (defining, - it is essential to specify which house we are talking about.)
My grandfather's house, which was built in 1881, was destroyed by fire
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Amir OghlowWhy is "which is quite surprising" non-defining?
It has no definite antecedent. In particular, it is not the lecture which is quite surprising. It's the whole situation in which the lecture is cancelled that is surprising.

CJ
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